Pods

We lined up some fantastic partnerships for our Creation project in autumn 2013, enabling us to reach many traditionally under-represented areas in terms of audience development. Our 300 Young Ambassadors are drawn from ten Pods across London and further afield.

Wren Academy, Barnet

An Academy school. Vocal Futures complemented and enhanced the school's programme of enrichment through the arts. The students had an opportunity to experience first-hand a professional tech set-up and stage build as they spent time on-set with our tech crew during the run-up to the production.

The Place, Camden

We worked with undergraduate students and exceptionally talented pupils on the Centre for Advanced Training programme at this specialist dance school. The students had the opportunity to experience another branch of the performing arts, and to work with celebrated choreographer Fernando Melo and director Patrick Kinmonth on staging The Creation.

Eastside Educational Trust, Hackney

The Vocal Futures programme complemented the Trust's ongoing provision of workshops to young people. We worked with students who have taken part in the Trust's existing video workshops to devise an aspect of the video imagery for our production, creating a link between classical music and their interests.

London Youth Choir

The London Youth Choir formed a major part of the chorus for our production. Thirty members of the choir also participated in the Vocal Futures education programme. They played an important role as performers from the same age group (16-22) as the other Young Ambassadors in developing best practice models of self-promotion and audience development amongst performing musicians.

Thomas Tallis School, Greenwich

This comprehensive school has specialist performing arts status. Journalism is their chosen industry-linked area, and the students will worked with Richard Morrison, chief music critic of The Times, to develop their research and interviewing skills, culminating in an article on audience development published in our production programme.

The Who Cares? Trust

We a delighted to have formed a partnership with The Who Cares? Trust, enabling us to give 'looked after' children in Social Services care access to creative opportunities that they would not ordinarily come across, and a potentially life-changing introduction to classical music. They spent time with our lighting crew, devising creative lighting strategies for the final production.

Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge

Anglia Ruskin identified a pattern of non-attendance at classical music concerts by their Music undergraduate students. We worked with a mixed group of Music and Technology students to address this issue, and to investigate how technology can be used to enhance audience experience at concerts.

London Academy of Excellence, Newham

Pupils attending this Academy school come from richly diverse backgrounds and faiths but have little exposure to classical music at school. Comparing creation myths from several faiths, we facilitated a study of Haydn's inspiration for his interpretation of the Creation, which lead to the contribution of an article for the production programme on this aspect of the work.

Wells Cathedral School, Somerset

Wells had special status amongst our Pods as the only Pod to have also taken part in the first project in 2011. Drawing on their knowledge of classical music, they played a crucial role in selecting further concert opportunities and promoting these to the rest of the Young Ambassadors - inspired by the belief that peer encouragement can be more persuasive than any other factor in engendering behavioural change. They drew on the pathbreaking work of our music psychology research team.

Twyford School, Ealing

Twyford School took the lead in a partnership of several schools across Ealing, working closely with Ealing Music Hub, to form a Pod for Vocal Futures. We worked with Music Technology students who are passionate about the recording industry but who have yet to apply their talents to the genre of classical music. Students participated in a workshop led by Simon Whitehorn, one of the UK's leading sound designers.